14. Only The First Day Of The Year

FOURTEEN

ONLY THE FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR

A gentle shaking woke me from my sleep. My arms ached, and it took three tries to get my eyelids to cooperate. Damn. I was getting too old for naps. I hadn’t even planned on taking one, but with Jack’s warmth enveloping me, I must have drifted off.

Jack had his feet on the floor, but his left arm was still trapped between my back and the mattress. “I was hoping I wouldn’t wake you.” An apologetic smile adorned his face.

I blinked at him, and after a moment of coming back to reality, I lifted my chest to free his arm. “What time is it?”

“It’s a little after four.” He twisted his wrist and shook it as if it needed a second to wake up, too.

“We slept for five hours ?”

“Is that so surprising? Neither of us slept last night.”

I sat up, but the blood rushing to my head was my body’s way of telling me to give it a few more seconds before I could get out of bed. I leaned back and closed my eyes again.

“I’m going to use the bathroom,” Jack whispered. The mattress wobbled as he pushed himself to get up. His bare feet padded across the laminate floor.

My drowsy brain pictured him naked on his way to the bathroom. It just couldn’t stop. Whenever I think of him, he's not wearing anything. I couldn’t get enough of seeing him like that. To be fair, he had slept next to me in his birthday suit for an entire week. If only he would have been naked when I woke up.

Wait.

I forced my eyes open, but I could only see his firm ass for a second before he disappeared behind the white door on the left. Well, he will be back, and it was not as if he was shy about showing himself to me.

Finally awake, my eyes wandered around the room, taking in everything again. The apartment was small, sure, but clean. A few pictures on the wall and a different lamp would make it look much more cozy, and if we moved a few things around, we could get a bigger bed without having to get rid of the desk. It was definitely meant for one person and wouldn’t be a good long-term solution, but if we could make it work here, we could probably make this relationship work anywhere.

I blew out some air to process that thought.

A relationship . Jack and I were in a relationship . Even if we haven’t called it that yet, it was heading that way. Heat radiated through my chest. My limbs felt light and weightless. Me, in a relationship. It was so unexpected, but it felt so right. However, it was too early to redecorate his apartment in my head.

I ran my palms over my face.

My chest fluttered. I had decided to stay with him, but this had… consequences. There was not much time to celebrate now because there would be a lot to take care of. I now had some money from working for the McCormacs, which would cover the most basic expenses for a month, but by then, I should have found some form of income.

Jack reappeared at the door, still naked as my dirty brain had imagined. His flaccid dick swayed between his legs and instantly grew at the sight of me. He crawled back into bed. “Sorry I woke you up.”

“No, it’s actually good. There are some things we should take care of. The sooner, the better.”

“I’m up for it. I took the day off. I did all the shopping yesterday, and after you called, I told everyone I couldn’t come in to clean or do whatever needed to be done until tomorrow.” He stared at me, tilting his head to the right. “I’m ready to help with anything.”

“I have to make some phone calls, like to my parents, to let them know that I won't be home today. But maybe I should call Dany first to tell him I’m interested in working for them.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I don’t think it’s good for me to hide. I need to get out there like you need to get back into a car after an accident. Besides, I don't think my parents would take it well if I told them I was quitting the FDA job without having anything to replace it with.”

Jack stared at me for a moment before a smile broke across his face. “If you want, I can send a message to Dany to see if we can go there tonight. I bet Laura would be thrilled to have us over. She jumps at any chance to entertain.”

I knitted my eyebrows together. “I guess I have to get used to the small-town community, huh? Everybody knows each other, and instead of calling someone, you just go over for dinner?”

“Welcome to Seastone.” Jack laughed. “If this is too much, we can?—”

“No. It’s perfect.” All of it was—the chance to meet new people, to start a new life, and to be with Jack. It was exactly what I needed.

An hour later, we parked my car in front of Dany’s place. The house was on a hill and big enough to give the impression that they had at least ten children, although Jack assured me that Dany and Laura only had a son and a daughter, both of whom were away at college.

Trees surrounded their yard, but once we walked through them, we found a stable, a cowshed, a goat shed, and two barns. At least twenty chickens, two turkeys, and six rabbits watched Jack and me as we walked up to their house. The turkeys poked their long heads through the chain-link fence, curious to see who had appeared on their home turf. In the distance, I could see two calves and a cow wandering through the snow and five goats in another pen next to them.

Dany waved at us from the main entrance and motioned for us to come up. We walked up the fifteen steps that took us higher up the hill to the main entrance. On the lawn to the left, a snowman guarded an empty pool.

“This is a pleasant surprise.” Dany shook my hand when I had made it all the way up to him. “Can’t say I expected this, but I can say that it’s good to have you here. My dad’s still out, but he’ll be joining us in a few minutes.” He pushed the door open. “Come on in. Make yourself at home. Laura made us some tea.”

My chest felt light, but in a good way. This wasn’t at all how I expected to start the new year, but I couldn’t deny that I was more excited than nervous.

He led us through a spacious entryway into a kitchen in the back. Large windows overlooking the snowy mountain surrounded a wooden table where six cups, each with a different snowman painted on it, and a plate full of homemade cookies were waiting for us.

A woman who looked at least ten years younger than Dany threw a coaster on the plate and placed a steaming teapot, with leaves still swirling in it, in the middle of the table. When she saw me, she smiled as if she had been waiting to meet me for years. She hurried toward me. “You must be Noah. Welcome! I’m Laura.”

I held out my hand, but she threw her arms around me and gave me a quick hug. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said, trying to hide the fact that my voice was trembling a little more with anticipation than I thought it would.

“Likewise,” Laura said, pointing to the seats. “Please, sit down. Does anyone need any milk or sugar? Or do we want anything other than tea and cookies? I have ice cream, too, or I can make us some yogurt.” She pointed to the refrigerator. “If you’re hungry, just take whatever you want.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” I replied, sitting down next to Jack.

“Why the change of heart?” Dany asked, standing behind a chair on the other side of the table, resting his hands on the backrest.

“Well, Seastone has captured my heart,” I said, looking at Jack, who blushed at my words. “So I thought we should at least talk about opportunities.”

“There are definitely some opportunities here,” Dany replied. “But I want to be honest. We’ve been trying to find a replacement for my father for years. We had a lot of recruits, but most of them ghosted us.”

“They didn’t even decline?”

Dany shook his head. “We offer a good deal, I think. Overall, the clinic is well managed with eight techs for two point five doctors. We have an AAHA-certified, beautiful integrative medicine hospital. Thirty-two hours maximum for all staff.”

“Two point five vets?”

“Yes, at the moment, it’s just my dad and a vet from Ashbourne who helps out when things get too busy. As I said, one of the positions is completely vacant. The goal would be to fill that for now, pay you a good salary, and gradually work on you taking over the clinic so that my dad can be replaced in a year or two, hopefully. He’s very fit for his age, and even though he said he’d work until he dropped dead, we’d like him to have his well-deserved retirement.”

“Understandable.”

“Are there any other questions I can answer while we wait?”

“How much time do you schedule for appointments? Where I worked before, they only gave me fifteen when I would’ve needed at least twenty, if not up to thirty, depending on the case.”

“We know about that. Dad used to do fifteen, but now he needs twenty. Appointments should be twenty minutes as you get more experience, but we’ve scheduled thirty for newbies. And you don’t have to write records because the techs do that.”

“I’m not going to lie. That sounds great.”

“Doesn’t it? Although there’s a ‘ but ’ in there from me.” He took a deep breath, his fingers gripping the back of the chair. “ Something must be wrong. I’m not in these conversations with my father, so let me tell you this: if there’s a catch and you don’t want it, that’s fine. Just let me know if we can do anything better.”

The opening of the front door made everyone look up and hold their breath as if they were afraid that if my first impression of Dany’s father wasn’t good, I would run away screaming.

A guy, maybe twenty-four, in a dark brown coat, entered the room. He took off the used over-ear headphones that kept his jet-black hair down. His eyes widened as he noticed the obviously unannounced gathering. “Hey, everybody,” he murmured. His eyes rested on me briefly, darting to Jack and then back to me.

“This is Alex,” Dany’s said. “He’s staying with us right now.”

Alex waved to me and then looked at Dany. “I shoveled all the snow around the sheds,” he replied. “Is there anything else?”

“Thank you. You can go back to your music.”

Alex waved to everyone again and then headed for a staircase at the back of the kitchen.

Dany turned back to me. “The kid’s obsessed. Talented, though, but let’s not get into that now.”

I remembered Dany had mentioned that a guy who lived with them was also gay, but I had other things on my mind right now.

Dany sighed and looked at his watch and then at Laura. “He probably can’t get away from the cows.” Dany looked at me. “Dad friggin’ loves cows. How about I take you to him instead?”

“Sure, let’s go.” I stood up and looked for Jack, who remained seated. I raised my eyebrows at him.

Jack laughed. “You go with Dany. Laura and I will wait here. I’m not a vet, after all.”

Dany pursed his lips as if he had to hold back the offer to pay for Jack’s education again, but a stern look from Jack was enough to keep him quiet.

“How about I make us something to eat?” Laura said. “I want you to see the best of Seastone, and my tomato pie is one of them, I promise.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I look forward to it.”

Jack sent me off with a wink as I turned and followed Dany.

The conversation with Dany’s father, who introduced himself as Dorian, went well. He didn’t look nearly seventy at all. He was fit, with strong upper arm muscles, a three-day beard, and—sorry to say—looked like the older version of how I imagined one of the cowboys from Mrs. Candice’s book.

We walked through the stables, and he told me about his clinic and all the fancy equipment they had that I could only dream of at my last job: EMR, their own well-stocked pharmacy (because otherwise, things would get complicated so far from the rest of the world), digital radiography, tonometry, and even a working microscope. He told me how he trained the support staff in restraint, phlebotomy, and radiographic techniques. At some point, it felt like he was bragging. He asked me about my experiences, and after telling him all the things he could have read on my resume if I’d brought a copy, I decided not to sugarcoat anything. I told him how I had worked almost twenty-four-seven and how it had made me lose my passion for the job, but that I would push through to find it again. He was very understanding and said that this was a thing happening all over the country and that he would be happy to help me find a good work-life balance. It wasn’t a thing when he was young, but he wished it had been.

We also talked about money. Dorian apologized and said that he knew it was a little less than what I could make in the city, but they couldn’t afford more at the moment. I couldn't tell him that his offer was better than what I would have made at the FDA. We agreed that I would sleep on it and visit him at the clinic before either of us made a decision.

After that, we went back to the house. The kitchen was filled with the fresh smell of pies. Jack was wearing an apron, and his nose was covered with flour as he helped Laura make the dough. It was absolutely adorable.

We all ate together, including Alex, who didn’t say a word the whole time but glanced at Jack and me whenever he thought we wouldn’t notice.

When the meal was over, Jack and I thanked them for everything and said goodbye for the night.

As soon as we were in the car, Jack stared at me with wide eyes. “And?”

“Not even a second,” I laughed.

“I don’t want to know if you’ve decided. I’m just curious about what you think.”

I let my head fall back into the seat. “Just talking about it, it sounds amazing. It would be silly not to take it. I'm still a little scared about going back to work, but Dorian said he's happy to give me plenty of time to adjust.” I turned to Jack. “What’s the catch? There must be a reason they couldn’t find anyone.”

“Seastone is the catch. There is nothing here—no movie theater, fancy shops, or even a bar. Most people are over forty.”

“But you moved here. If it’s so awful, why do that?”

Jack took a deep breath. “Staying this long wasn’t really part of the plan. I drove through town, thought it looked nice enough to get my head out of things, and rented a room from Dany for a week. I wanted to hike and be on my own. But then he had this temp job, and one thing led to another.”

“I get it. I mean, everyone I’ve met so far has been nothing but nice to me. The town might be boring, but it’s all about the people, right?”

“It is. And if you know the right people, you’ll get some amenities back. That other gay couple I told you about? They have their own private home theater. They let me use it before, so if you want, I can take you there on our first date.”

“First date? I like the sound of that.”

“I mean, yeah. We’ve only ever lived together. We’ve never been on a proper date. And I want you to see that you won’t be bored here.”

It was cute how his words still tried to hide the fact that he couldn’t believe I was staying, how he still felt the need to convince me. But I had already made my decision. Of course, I was going to take the job. I had to give it a try. Here, I felt like I had a support network that I didn’t have before, and by that, I mean Jack.

I leaned over the shift stick and kissed him. “I can’t wait to go on a proper date with you—hundreds of them.”

“Let’s start with one, shall we?”